Book of Isaiah Bible Study - Part 14

Well, good afternoon, good evening, everyone! We are in Isaiah 17. If everybody would turn there. The burden of Damascus. Damascus was one of the crossroads of cities of the ancient world. Still is a crossroad city. It's about a little over 100 miles north of Jerusalem. Of course, it came into prominence in the days of the apostle Paul. He was on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians when he was struck down. So Damascus goes back a long way, even before the days of the apostle Paul. Damascus is said to be the most beautiful city in that part of the world. In fact, it was often called the Pearl of the East. So it existed all the way back to the time of the days of Abraham. So it is a very ancient city. Damascus is the capital of Syria, and so we could just as well say here the burden of Syria. At one time, Damascus and Israel were allied together.

And that means that at one time, Israel and Syria were allied together. And at times, Syria was allied with Assyria. And oftentimes, people confuse Assyria with they are two different countries in Bible prophecy. So the burden, the weight that is on Damascus, is taken away from being a city. Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. So Damascus was attacked by the Assyrian kings a few times, and Damascus was really a gateway into Israel. And if Damascus fell, you could pretty well rest assured that perhaps Israel would fall. The cities of Aror are forsaken. They shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Time after time in Bible prophecy, God uses all kinds of metaphors, which I would call negative metaphors, to graphically describe what He's going to do to those who have disobeyed Him. Of course, He is using Assyria as the rot of His anger against Israel eventually. But as we shall note, perhaps we shall note that right now, that God did not permit Assyria to ultimately defeat Judah, even though He allowed Assyria to defeat Israel and take them into captivity. First of all, let's look at Israel being taken into captivity, and we'll note that in 2 Kings 17, verse 3. So if you'll turn to 2 Kings 17, verse 3, we're talking about Israel being taken into captivity by Assyria. I gave you a handout way back when we first started—I don't know how many class meetings it was—a handout on the Assyrian kings that are named in the Bible. There are five. Tiglath, Polizer, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, and Ezra Haddon. It was under Shalmaneser and Sargon that Israel was taken captive. So we are at 2 Kings chapter 17.

Now remember, at times Damascus was allied with Israel, and at times Damascus and or Israel and Syria were against Israel. But in this case, it is demonstrating in this prophecy that Damascus is falling, and thus Syria is falling, and Israel better be on guard, because God begins to describe what he is going to do with the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom. So when we're in 2 Kings 17, in the 20th year of Ahaz, king of Judah began Hoshiah, the son of Elit, to reign in Samaria. Now Samaria is the capital of the northern ten tribes. The Samaritans later on, after they had gone in—that is, northern tribes had gone into captivity—they built a great temple on Mount Gerizim that rivaled the one in Jerusalem. You remember that encounter that Jesus had with a woman at the well, in which Jesus said to her, you say that in the mountain of Samaria, I am fair appraising now, men ought to worship. But I say unto you that you ought to worship in Jerusalem. And eventually he said you have to worship God in spirit and in truth. So verse 2, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, that is Hoshiah, the king of Israel, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him, against him, came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. Now Shalmaneser had a very short reign. He reigned from 726 to 722, and really the one that finished taking Israel into captivity was Sargon, as we shall see in just a moment. Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshiah became his servant, that is the king of Israel, and gave him presence. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshiah, for he had sent messengers to Soh, so is the name of the king, a Pharaoh in Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria. So that was one of the main things that caused Assyria. Later, Sennacherib tried to take Judah because Judah refused to pay tribute to the Assyrians. As he had done year by year, therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria. Remember, Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom, besieged it in three years. So basically from 721 to 722, I mean 721 to 718, some of the commentaries vary on saying 722 to 719, but most say 721 to 718. In the ninth year of Hoshiah, the king of Assyria, so Hoshiah was the king of Israel. So in the ninth year of Hoshiah, king of, which it doesn't say Israel, Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah, in a haybor by the river goes in and in the cities of the meads. Now we want to go to chapter 18, and chapter 18 will begin in verse 10.

And at the end of three years, they took it even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshiah, king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel into Assyria and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river goes in, in the city of the meads, because they obeyed not the Lord, they broke the covenant. So Damascus was a key to the gateway to for Assyria to conquer Israel.

Now back in Isaiah 17 verse 3, all of us should have in mind those dates in which the Northern Kingdom went into captivity. Another comment that I would like to make, you read about, you hear about all the intrigue that is going on today in politics. It is absolutely incredible some of the things that are happening.

You can't believe that the things that are happening are happening, and people would say the things that they say. While the political intrigue, the hating, the killing, and all that kind of thing was taking place in the days of these kings, in the days of ancient Israel and of the other ancient nations, that's just the way of the human nature.

It has not changed. Now in Isaiah 17.3, the fortress also shall cease from Ephraim. So Ephraim, as I've told you many times, is put sometimes to denote the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes. Why? Because Ephraim was the largest tribe, and Ephraim was the leading tribe, and Ephraim was where the tabernacle was pitched after Israel came into the Promised Land. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of Hosts.

Well, God destroyed. What that verse is saying is that the glory that Israel had had been taken away, and the glory that Syria had will be taken away as well. It's awkwardly worded there, but that's what it's saying, that the glory that Israel had that was destroyed by the Assyrians will also happen to Damascus as well. And in that day, another thing that I've told you so many times is those four words there, or in some cases three words, in that day or in that day, and in that day, is a prophetic utterance.

And most of the time, it has to do with merging into the millennium. It's not always, and in this case, some of the in that day is used in the negative sense to show that what's going to be happening to those that are being conquered, and in this case, Damascus and Israel by Assyria. And in that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob. Now, Jacob is oftentimes used for all 12 tribes.

In some cases, it can be used for just the northern kingdom, the 10 tribes. So it was the northern kingdom, the 10 tribes that were conquered by the Assyrians and taken captive. Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of the flesh shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvest man gathers the corn and reaps the ears with his arm, and it shall be as he that gathers ears in the valley of Repheme. Repheme was a rich fertile plain there between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. I've driven down that road from Wanda and I, along with some others, from Jerusalem down to Bethlehem. It's a nice little drive about 10 or 12 miles.

What it's saying there is, if you've ever seen a vacant cornfield after it's been harvested, it is an ugly, ugly sight. It's a pretty sight when the corn is tasseling and it's beginning to hear. It's a beautiful sight, but after it's harvested it looks terrible. Verse 6, yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof. Says the Lord God of Israel.

Very few things are going to be left that are edible, and in some cases that's the way it was, and it's going to be later with people. A small remnant left. At that day shall a man look to his maker and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. Now this verse seems somewhat out of place in connection with describing what Assyria is going to do to Damascus and to Israel, but it takes that kind of action by God, oftentimes for humans to, for God to get humans' attention.

And even after the trumpet plagues are poured out, at least the first six of those are poured out.

Well, actually, the first five of them, there's no evidence of anyone repenting during that time, even though God has intervened so mightily and so openly. So in that day shall a man look to his maker and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And what's going on in the world today cannot get your attention, and if you cannot be humbled by it and realize what we are up against, then something is wrong in your spiritual life.

In that day shall his strong cities be as forsaken as a forsaken bow and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel, and there shall be desolation. Desolation, desolation, because you are forgotten the God of your salvation and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength. Oftentimes, God is referred to as the rock in the Bible. There are some 17 places in Deuteronomy in which God is referred to as the rock, the rock of your strength. Therefore shall you plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips. Some of you may not know what a potato slip is, and some call it a potato plant, but a slip is a small sliver off of a seed potato that is leafed out a little bit, and you put it into the ground, and it becomes a very sweet potato. And shall set it with strange slips. Other words, strange plants that really won't bear any good fruit. And that day shall you make your plant to grow, and in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish. But the harvest shall be a heap. You can work your head off, you can do whatever you want to, but it's going to be just a little heap pile that's really not worth very much at that time. So in that day it shall be just a heap, a heap in the day of grief and desperate sorrow. Woe to the multitude of many people which make a noise like the noise of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

So if any of you have ever thresh-grained and seen the wind come against it, how it blew away the hulls thereof, the chaff as the whirlwind, and behold, at evening tide, trouble, and before the morning he is not. This is a portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. Now, you have like a almost a conundrum here. On the one hand, God is punishing Israel for her sins. On Syria and Babylon and other nations that have come against God's people through the ages thought it was through their might, through their power, through their brilliance. But God stirred up the spirit of these people to do what they are doing, and I think we'll see that in verses as we move along here this evening. And God can change the minds of people by stirring up their spirit. God stirred up the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar to do what he did, and because of what he did, eventually he was spent seven years like a wild animal out in the wilderness, as it were. On the positive side, he stirred up this the spirit of Cyrus to allow Judah to return to Israel to build the Second Temple. Now chapter 18. Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Now, a lot of the commentators, virtually everyone that I've read, says that this woe is not a good translation, because a lot of people think that God is about to destroy the Ethiopians, and that is a mistake.

The Hebrew does not express a threat, but it is an appeal calling attention to. A better translation would be hoe to the land, or hello to the land. Wake up to the land.

He's not speaking against the Ethiopians, but he's speaking to the Ethiopians, calling them to hear his prothetical announcement as to the destruction of their enemies. I hope we have that clear. Ethiopia was quite a country for quite a long time, and it interacted with Israel from time to time. In fact, let's turn to 1 Kings 10, verse 1. 1 Kings 10, verse 1. It's unusual to have a female queen given this kind of attention in Scripture. Ethiopia was a powerful country, and in fact, what is now modern-day Sudan made up part of Ethiopia. It was a mighty kingdom with mighty warriors.

Here we have the visit of the Queen of Sheba to see Solomon. In 1 Kings 10, verse 1, when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him, to test him, to see him, and she asked him a lot of hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, a lot of people with camels, their bare spices, very much gold, precious stones, and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him, taught with him of all that was in her heart. Solomon told her questions. In other words, he answered her questions. There was not anything hid from the King, which he told her not. When the Queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and you can read about some of those sacrifices in Chronicles of what Solomon had for lunch, let's say, there was a lot, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. She was just blown away, as they say. She could not believe it.

And she said to the King, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land of your acts, of your wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words until I came in mine eyes, that seen it behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard. Happy are your men, happy are your servants, which stand continually before you, and that hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, which delights in you, to set you on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he you king, to do justice and judgment. She gave the king a hundred talents of gold, and of spices, very great store, precious stones. There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. She gave him more than anybody else.

And the navy also hire him that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of Amok trees and precious stone. And so the ten verses there are taken up with the queen of Sheba. Now, according to Jewish legend and tradition, before I go there, let's note what Jesus said. Jesus confirmed the veracity of the queen of Sheba, calling her the queen of the South, in two different places in the New Testament. Now, first of all, I'm going to read from Matthew 1242. The queen of the South shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. So Jesus Christ confirmed the visit of the queen of Sheba with Solomon. And then in Luke 1131, the queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Now, according to tradition, Solomon got her pregnant. This is a legend. Some presented as truth, some presented as a legend, but it is on the internet. You can easily see it. If you look up the queen of Sheba and Solomon, that there's a tradition among the Jews of Ethiopia called the Philatia Jews. And when the Bible says Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, it's referring to a son they had together. And this is how she returned with more than she had brought. And she was pregnant with Solomon's child. Christianity had made inroads into Ethiopia, because you remember the account in Acts 8, where Philip encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, who was on his way back from the feast in Jerusalem back to Ethiopia. And he was one of the eunuchs. And so it is contended by this legend that the queen of Sheba and Solomon had a child named Menelik. Menelik I was a mighty warrior. He was also called Ebna L'Hakeem, son of the wise. According to the legend, he stayed with Solomon until he was 18. I don't know how that happened. She went back. He was born and came back. But I'm just reading here what a lot of the commentaries say in history books. This tradition also states that Solomon gave him a replica of the ark of the covenant to take with him. Some believe that priests who foresaw Israel descending into paganism switched the replica for the real thing. Therefore, the real ark went to Ethiopia, whether it's the real one or not. It's not known, but by many accounts there is an ark in Ethiopia.

So Christianity, a type of Christianity, and Judaism flourished in Ethiopia for a long time. Now, in 1977, Israel decided under the return law. In 1950, there was a law passed when Israel became a nation. After the 48th war, in 1950, a law passed called the return law that allowed Jews to return to the homeland. This return is also called the Aliyah. You see, Aliyah means returning to the homeland. There's a worldwide organization. In fact, there are several organizations. John Hagee, who pastors the Cornerstone Church down in San Antonio, advocates helping the Jews from Russia migrate to Israel. Israelis encourage the migration because the Arabs make up about 20 percent of the population now, but they are far more fertile with regard to reproduction than the Israelis are. The Israelis are very anxious to have the majority in the population.

But in 1977, Israel decided that the return law applied to the Falasha Jews and thousands of them, some say 28,000, were forced to migrate from Ethiopia into Israel.

Both Israel and the United States of America justified the forced relocation of African Jews to Israel on calculated and false accusations of hunger and religious discrimination suffered at the hands of fellow Ethiopian Christians and Muslims.

And so there's also another group of Falasha Jews that have migrated there, the Murah Falashes. So they're still Falasha Jews in Ethiopia. They claim to be descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity several years, generations ago, and they have been asking to immigrate to Israel for 20 years. But Israel has admitted thousands of Falasha Murah along with the Falasha Jews, and many of them live in camps that are not too attractive. You see those pictures of those camps of those refugees there in Ukraine. It's quite awful as they migrated into Poland and surrounding countries. So a bit of, to me, very interesting information there. Ethiopia was quite a country, and God is telling them that how to wake up, that their enemies are going to be overthrown. It is said that the Ethiopian people were very beautiful people. They had very smooth skin. They were a brownish, light brownish color people, tall and handsome as the tradition goes.

So we'll read that Isaiah 18.1 again with that backdrop. Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

The Nile River comes up, and there used to be seven forks coming off of the Nile. In fact, there is an island out there in the edge of the the just off the coastline in the Mediterranean that sends ambassadors by the sea even in vessels of bull rushes. So the Ethiopians made these canoes out of the vegetation that was available to them. Bull rushes upon the water saying, go you swift messengers to a nation scattered and peeled to a people terrible from their beginning and hitherto a nation met it out and trodden down whose land the rivers have spoiled. So the Nile is the breadbasket, as it were, of Egypt, and they depended upon the Nile to overflow each year and to bring in the fertile soil and fertilizer that ensured they would have a bountiful crop.

Now, on the other hand, the rivers can overflow and spoil land as well as we see here.

In Isaiah 18.3, all you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth. That's everybody. See you when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains and when he blows a trumpet, hear you.

So an ensign, we have talked about the ensign that Jesus Christ is a great ensign and that he will gather all nations to him. Of course, God does it through Christ.

And when this trumpet is blown, listen to him. On the Mount of Transfiguration when Peter, James, and John went out with Jesus, and they saw in vision the Second Coming, and the voice said, this is my beloved Son, listen to him. And so this ensign is to be listened to.

For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heart upon the herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For a fore the harvest when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off this sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches.

So Egypt, who had been a, who or which had been a, an enemy of the Ethiopians, were going to be taken down. Of course, Assyria did this. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth and the fowls shall summer upon them. You know, the migration of birds, how they migrate to certain areas, and they spend the summer there, and they eat whatever is available to them at that place. This sort of sounds like Revelation 19, where God invites the fowls of the air to come to the Great Supper there in the slain of men when God intervenes in the flesh, melts off their bones when he intervenes in his Second Coming. And all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. They will gross fat eating that, getting prepared to hibernate for the winter. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts. Now, this present is a tribute we talked about in chapter 16, that a tribute was brought to David, but a tribute here is to be brought to Mount Zion. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto. Up until this time, now we're going to see in chapter 19 how that eventually three nations are pointed out that work together in the millennium. And those three nations are Egypt, Assyria, and Judah. Of course, Judah is probably placed there for all of Israel, because as you know in Zechariah chapter 8, the last verse, I think it's 23, where it says, and men of all languages that have escaped will take hold of a Jew and say, tell us about your God. We've heard that God is with you. So it could just as easily have said, take hold of the skirt of an Israelite. But it came to be beginning at the Babylonian captivity and on forward that mainly even those who were not of the tribe of Judah sometimes were referred to as Jews. To people scattered in Piel and from a people terrible from their beginning, hitherto a nation met it out, tried it under foot, whose land the rivers of spoil, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion. So they are to bring the present to Mount Zion. And of course, that takes us down to millennial days when the nations beat their swords in the plowshares and they remember war no more. And the nations go up to Jerusalem to keep the feast. And you know, it says in Zechariah, if a nation doesn't come up to keep the feast, they get no rain. Now let's go to chapter 19. Chapter 19, the burden of Egypt, the weight, the burden that is upon them because they have hitherto for been a very wicked people.

They have persecuted the people of God. They have done all kinds of things, but yet at the same time, God has some kind of special affinity for the nation of Egypt. And you know that if we are warned, or people were warned not to speak evil of Egypt because that was the place where you were for probably 200 years after the death of Joseph. The burden of Egypt, behold, the Lord rides upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence. You talk about a nation steeped in idolatry with the sphinx from the sphinx and the various pyramids and the various things that they've carved out of the rocks and the idols and the false gods and the demonic and the priests that really are priests of Satan the devil. Egypt has led the way in many ways in that. He shall be moved at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. The heart of Egypt shall melt in it.

And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight everyone against his brother. Now, there are other places in Micah that talk about that every man's hand shall be against his neighbor.

The time is coming in which food and the necessities of life will be so scarce and so precious that people will do almost anything. They even gnaw the flesh off their own bodies to keep themselves alive.

And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight everyone against his brother, everyone against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom, and the spirit of Egypt shall fall in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the council thereof. All of the idols, all the mystics, all of the soothsayers, all of the demonic priests, all of that, and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. You remember that when Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh, before one of those plagues, I forget exactly which one it was, that when Moses cast down the rod and it became a snake, that the magicians of Egypt were able to duplicate that. So there is great miracle working power in some of the, quote, black magic that is extant on the earth today, and the Egyptians have excelled at that, or in that, through the ages.

Verse 4, and the Egyptians will give over into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts. Now, we have talked about Lord and Lord of Hosts, but God does his work, most of his work, he does through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is over all of the hosts of heaven. There's nothing that Jesus Christ is not over except God the Father. And the waters shall fall from the sea, and the rivers shall be wasted and dried up. I mean, if you dry up the Nile, I mean, that's the end of Egypt.

And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up. The reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reads by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and everything sown by the brooks shall wither and be driven away, and be no more.

The fishers shall also moor. I guess they would. There's no water, so there's no fish. And all they that cast angle into the brook shall emit, and they that spread nets upon the water shall languish. Moreover, they that work in fine flags. Of course, Egypt was known for its fine cotton and various fabrics that came out of Egypt. The Egyptian cotton was highly sought after.

And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof all that makes sluices, and a sluice is a type of pot. You see those sluices, if you drive from Beaumont over to Lafayette and Louisiana, and you see all those sluices, those sluices have crawfish out there in Louisiana.

Verse 11. Surely the princes of Zoan are fools. The council of the wise, counselors of Pharaoh, has become brutish. Pharaoh, of course, is a generic term for any person who is the king, who is the chief monarch of Egypt.

Has become brutish. How say you unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings. Where are they? Where are the wise? Where are the wise men? And let them tell you now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts has purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan, as one of the principal cities, are become fools. The princes of Nop, another principal city, are deceived. They have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes, even the leading ones of the tribes that people would go to and ask for advice. They get no sound advice for anyone. The Lord has mingled this verse. The Lord has mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, and they have caused these spirits, Egypt, to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Now, we can read that today, and we may not take it to heart, but let's turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and start in verse 10. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and start in verse 10.

In 2 Thessalonians 2.10, talking about this miracle working one at the end of the age, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And one of the things that I have tried to get across to people and to my own family is that the truth is so precious. It is sacred that God does not call everyone at this age. He does not open their mind and hearts at this time. But if God allows you to see the truth, it is not something that you can play around with, and you can reduce it to personalities or things that go on in the world or in the church or any other place. It is the truth, loving the truth of God, which is revealed in the pages of the Bible, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for that cause, what cause? Because they did not love the truth. God shall send them. Who sends the strong delusion? God sends them strong delusion. You can't play games with God. None of us can.

We will always come out a loser if we try it. God is God. He is supreme. He rules over the sons of men and everything in the universe that they should believe the lie. There's no indefinite article in Greek. It is the lie. What is the lie? I'm very convinced that the lie is to believe that that one sitting in the temple and doing these miracles is God. They are so deceived that they leave the truth that they are turned to fables. Brother, these are serious times in which we live.

So the Lord of the Mingle, a perverse spirit in the midst thereof, may have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggers in his moment. Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do. In that day shall Egypt be like unto a woman, and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shakes over it. I mean, what God is going to do to Egypt is going to wake them up. It's going to jar their eye teeth, as they say.

And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt. Everyone that makes mention thereof shall be afraid in himself because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he has determined against it. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt.

So Egypt is going to wake up, and they're going to listen. And they're going to be cleansed, as we notice in this verse, 1918. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan. In other words, they are going to learn the language of Judah, which is Hebrew, and they are going to be ceremonially cleansed. And swear to the Lord of hosts, one shall be called the city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt. Instead of the sphinx, instead of the pyramids, instead of all the grotesque characters that are carved out of stone and whatever else in Egypt. Notice this, there's going to be an altar in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to whom? Not to Pharaoh, but to the Eternal. It shall be for a sign and for a witness under the eternal of hosts in the land of Egypt, for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Savior and a great one, and he shall deliver them up. When the beast power comes into the Middle East, Egypt is going to fall under the beast power. All those nations that surround Israel at that time, the exception is Edom, Ammon, and Moab. The rest are going to fall. We read that last week from Daniel that these shall escape out of his hands, Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Now note, and the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall bow unto the Eternal and perform it, and the Eternal shall smite Egypt, and he shall smite the heel of it, and they shall return even to the Eternal, and he shall be entreated of them, and he will heal them. In that day, there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria. Assyria was north and slightly to the east of Egypt, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians, and of course they will serve also with Judah, with Israel. In that day shall Israel be the third, in that day shall Israel be the third, with Egypt, with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. So God is not a racist. He's not against any of the nations. He is for all nations that will repent. There's a wonderful scripture here in Revelation chapter 5 that I want us to look at at this time in Revelation chapter 5. After you read what we've just read here, these few verses, it is no wonder that God says that, is there anything too hard for the Lord? This is Revelation 5 verse 9, and they sung a new song, saying, you are worthy to take yet the book with the seals, to open the seals thereof, for you are slain, and have redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And have made unto us God, unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. In that day, Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Assyria. Now, Isaiah 19.25, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance. And what those last four or five verses there of Isaiah 19 are astounding verses. Now, you look, there's something similar to this in Isaiah 27.

In Isaiah 27, we look at the last few verses there.

First of all, it talks about what God is going to do, Leviathan, which is the devil.

The iniquity of Jacob shall be purged.

We'll speak it up in Isaiah 27.12. It shall come to pass in that day, merging into the millennium that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river under the stream of Egypt. And you shall be gathered one by one, and, O you children of Israel, and it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown. There was a great trumpet blown on the day of atonement, the day of liberty, and they shall come, which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and outcast the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mouth at Jerusalem.